Good morning all. I think I am going to call this one "A Bronze Path". This is only the third sea or lake scape I have done in my life, not counting the Santa Rosa Lake collection. Which of course makes it a very rare piece of work. While taking a nap after having breakfast I awoke so suddenly speaking out the words, "owe, that hurt!" My wife sitting next to me working on her Christmas crafts jerked with surprise and asked if I was OK. I told her the image vision I just had was so sharp and developed it hurt my left eye. I saw a completed painting sitting in a ornate gold frame. She said to the effect, "What are you waiting for? Go do it." I hemmed and hauled for a few minutes saying all the reasons it would be a waste of time, then went to my studio and worked for about five hours laying in the sky and clouds. The following day I worked laying in the water. I then worked on the shoreline. I have no idea what the next few days will bring.

The painting was done with a pallet knife, several types actually. Hodgepodge knife strike patterns are in the sky. Horizontal back and forth strikes are in the water and a sort of directional hodgepodge varying pattern is in the beach. After the knife work I went back in with fine brush work to define the waves, directions of some of the foam and to enhance some of the flat rocks on the beach. When the beach is dry I will go back in with the intent to do a little more wave foam and rock definitions. We shall see what happens then. As it stands now, this painting is extremely close to my nap vision.

The following posts are the collection of four days of work with about five hours per day. When I had to wait for the beach to dry I worked on the Casandra drawing that will become a painting. Oh yes, the last post shows the painting in a frame. Got impatient and had to see it as I saw it in my spit second vision that woke me up from my nap. It needs a lot more work on the beach to finish this painting.

Well, that didn't take long. Beach dry enough to continue today. So I did. A small brush enhanced the waves and rocks with white and a kind of eggshell white made with a small amount of yellow ochre and a large amount of titanium white. The shading on the beach was a three step process of applying a small amount of a darker color mix to form shadows with a pallet knife using upward strokes because the light is coming in from the clouds. If I used downward strokes the wrong side of the pallet knife ridges created when originally laying in the beach basic color would have the shading strikes on the wrong side. I then used a small stiff brush to stipple the paint laid down by the knife. When I was satisfied with the various levels of the stippling I then took paper towels and burnished the surface to enhance the flats versus the crevasses created by the original pallet knife application. Finally I revisited some of the areas I wanted enhanced with that rough freedom only a pallet knife can give.